An Israeli army spokesman said that the one-day maneuvers involve both land and air forces.

The exercise is part of activities to improve the army’s operational readiness “for any emergency,” he added.

Two years ago, the IOF left nearly 2,200 Palestinians dead, many of them women and children, in a large-scale offensive on the Gaza Strip. The war which lasted for 51 days, also injured some 11,000 Palestinians.

Israeli forces on Sunday at dawn opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats off the coast of the Gaza Strip, according to witnesses.

Witnesses told Ma'an that Israeli naval forces opened fire at the fishing boats while at sea in both the northern and southern Gaza Strip.

No injuries were reported.

Shortly after the fisherman were shot at, Israeli naval forces detained two fishermen and confiscated their boats off the cost of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, according to the head of the fishermen's union Nizar Ayyash.

A Palestinian young man was lightly wounded in the head after Israeli occupation forces (IOF) fired at civilians demonstrating near Nahal Oz military site east of Gaza on Friday evening, medical sources reported.

Eyewitnesses said that a group of young men went to the eastern Gaza borders to demonstrate against Israeli violations in the West Bank and Jerusalem as they do each Friday. IOF soldiers met the youths with machinegun fire and teargas bombs.

The eastern areas of the Gaza Strip have been witnessing, since the Jerusalem Intifada erupted in October 2015, many clashes with the occupation forces on Fridays. Hundreds have been killed or wounded at the hands of the IOF during those confrontations.

The Israeli occupation navy on Tuesday evening opened machinegun fire at Palestinian fishermen and their boats off the coast of the embattled Gaza Strip.

Israeli gunboats opened fire at fishing boats off the northern and southern coasts of northern Gaza and forced fishermen to return ashore, according to the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) in Gaza.

The naval forces also fired some flares during the gunfire attacks on boats.

Despite their keenness on working within the permitted fishing zone to avoid getting injured, killed or arrested, Gaza fishermen are exposed every once in a while to persecution, shooting and detention by the Israeli navy.

A PIC news correspondent said the Israeli naval forces opened spates of machinegun fire on Palestinian fishing boats setting sail off Beit Lahia waters, to the north of the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Speaking with a PIC correspondent, Head of Gaza’s Fishermen Union, Nizar Ayyash, said the Israeli occupation navy has often targeted Palestinian fishermen in the besieged coastal enclave with randomly-shot spates of machinegun fire and seized their fishing vessels.

Fishing is the sole source of income for 4,000 Palestinian fishermen in the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Israel allows Gazans to set sail within a three-nautical-mile zone only, which does not meet the needs of the fishermen who support 50,000 family members whose survival largely hinges on fishing.

The Palestinian Center for Human Right (PCHR) said that Israel unprecedentedly tightened its blockade on the Gaza Strip last month and imposed more restrictions on the movement of goods and citizens at border crossings.

This came in its report on the traffic of goods and individuals at Karam Abu Salem and Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossings last October.

According to this report, the quantity of goods that were allowed into Gaza through Karam Abu Salem crossing noticeably declined.

The volume of imports in October constituted 58.3 percent of the total imports in August, while the exports did not exceed 3.1 percent of the total exports that were there before Israel imposed the siege on Gaza in June 2007.

Israel also persisted during the reporting month in banning entry of about 400 types of different supplies to Gaza, mostly basic goods and raw materials.

Besides, severe restrictions are still imposed on the delivery of building materials needed for reconstructing homes and structures in Gaza, especially those destroyed during Israel’s wars on the impoverished enclave.

Israel only allowed, of the total construction materials needed by Gaza, 2.5 percent of cement, 1.6 percent of steel and 5.3 of gravel.

There were also entry restrictions on cooking gas shipments last month, where only 34.2 percent of the population’s total needs were allowed in.

As for the movement of citizens at Beit Hanoun crossing, Israel reduced further the number of passengers allowed to cross into the Palestinian territories under its occupation.

Compared to last September, the rate of travel rejections for Gaza patients increased. Therefore, the travel of patients in October saw a decline by 33.9 percent.

Simultaneously, a large number of patients’ companions were also denied travel during the same period. The rate of their rejected travel applications dropped by 36.5 percent compared to September.

Furthermore, the rate of businessmen allowed to travel saw about a 20-percent decline, while the number of people with humanitarian cases, relatives of prisoners and elderly worshipers who visit the Aqsa Mosque on Fridays decreased by 54.3 percent, 59.7 percent and 22 percent respectively.